The belly button is totally fair game, though

Carolyn Sharp: "The hand of God is not something to monkey around with."

Overheard: Psalms Exegesis

Leave that to Swancutt

Carolyn Sharp: So, he's a hero. I will complicate that in a moment.

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Carolyn Sharp: I don't mean to mess with your understanding of the New Testament. That's not my job. That will happen for you next year.

Overheard: OT

I'd hope so... the original is quite long.

Carolyn Sharp: You could read the whole Hebrew Bible, or my handout, which is shorter.

Overheard in Old Testament Interpretation

I'll stand in solidarity with polar bears

Carolyn Sharp: I'm quite sure that puffins and polar bears were not part of Jeremiah's people, but you could decide that polar bears are part of your people (as a prophetic strategy of ecological solidarity).

Overheard: Scripture and Social Ethics

And then kick him, but only a little bit

C. Sharp: How do we understand "do not be too righteous" and "do not be too wicked" in Ecclesiastes 7:16-17?
Student: I don't quite understand. I mean, can I ever be just a little wicked?
C. Sharp: Like take the orphan's bread, but don't push him down?..

Overheard in: Godly Skepticism: Ecclesiastes

Maybe he's a bottom

C. Sharp: Oh you know, we're just overthrowing the dominant suppressive culture narratives...
Student: I'm gay. I'm in no way dominant.

Not in Good Burger, the best Nickelodeon movie ever.

Carolyn Sharp: Food itself can be erotic. We've all seen the movies, I'm sure.

Overheard at: Psalms of Asaph

We've got CSharp's endorsement!

2nd career student: I'm a whore, you're a whore, we're all whores!

Carolyn Sharp: [turns bright red, looks down to contain laughter/uncertainty as to how she should respond] Someone should submit that to Overheard at YDS...

Overheard at: English Exegesis of Amos and Hosea, in reference to Hosea 1-3

The meaning of a Tootsie Roll

Susan Olson: I heard someone out here exegeting the candy bowl and I knew it had to be Carolyn Sharp.

Overheard at: Dale Peterson's candy bowl

What a vote of confidence

Student: Childbirth was easier than OT!
Carolyn Sharp: We should just hand out epidurals.

Now the whole world knows what we know...

Congrats to Carolyn Sharp, one of our favorite quote inspirations, for winning the 2007 Fortress Press Teacher of the Year award for graduate and seminary teaching!

I think this deserves a mocha latte from Koffee on Audubon St....

The CSharp reading program

Carolyn Sharp: That sarcastic, trickster model doesn't appeal to me. Life is short. God is real. Get serious, people. That's how I read.

CSharp lets loose

(Regarding the work and popular reviews of Robert Alter)

Carolyn Sharp: I did, once, actually receive a paper from a student who 'exegeted' what her grandmother had said about the relevant passage. It's not a prudent approach! Unless your grandmother is, you know, Gerhard von Rad. And even then, this assignment is about your interpretation of the passage, so Grandma von Rad would still need to be peripheral to your argument.

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Carolyn Sharp: Time to get a mocha and calm down about the dismissively reductionist approach to the Bible that we see so often in popular culture. And just in case you'd be tempted to say I never taught you anything worthwhile: the best mocha lattes in New Haven are at Koffee on Audubon Street. There. That's something you can cling to when all the world seems to be awash in postmodern relativism.

Overheard at: Old Testament

A better summary than Wikipedia

Student: It seems when things are good, the Israelites ignore God and when things are bad, they say, "Oh, God, help us out."
Carolyn Sharp: There's the book of Judges right there!

Carolyn's a robot?!?

Carolyn Sharp: "This is me mocking this point of view." (in a robot voice--) "The law of the Old Testament is simply outdated and uninformative."

Overheard at: Old Testament Interpretation

Carolyn Sharp: We've got to get out there and complexify the situation. So this weekend, make sure you talk to someone and complexify things.

Overheard at: Ruth and Esther class